SEWLEMENT DEVELOPMENT IN KWAZULU-NATm

African National Congress

Centre for Social and Development Studies

Department of Regional and Land Affairs

Human Sciences Research Council

Independent Development Trust

Inkatha Institute

KwaZulu Department of Economic Affairs

Regional Development Advisory Committee

South African National Civics Organisation

Urban Foundation

ents in

Editors Doug Hindson and Jeff McCarthy

O INDICATOR PRE=SS 1994

PREFACE

'Copy Editor: Karen Mac Gregor Production and Design: Rob Evans Cover Picture: Louisa Wassenaar

Reproduction: Multigraphics Cover Reproduction: Hirt & Carter

Printing: Robprint

Indicator Press CSDS, University of Natal

Private Bag X10, Dalbridge 40 14

ISBN: 1 - 86840 - 118 - 9

This project originated in 1992, following a Human Sciences Research Council seminar on 'Achieving Democracy and Economic Growth in KwaZulu-Natal'. It was suggested at the seminar that research and debate on specific regional problems were needed.

At a follow-up meeting to pursue this idea, the topic of Informal Settlement Development was identified as a research priority by a small committee comprising Mrs Margaret Winter, Professor Simon Bekker, Dr Michael Sutcliffe and Mr Jon Taylor.

A wide range of stakeholders with an interest in the topic were invited to a series of informal meetings at which a research brief emerged. The

z unique features of the informal committee were that it included

8 representatives from establishment and non establishment organisations,

F and its focus was provincial, cutting across KwaZulu and Natal Provincial

0

Administration areas. 3 n A u

A comprehensive project proposal aimed at contributing to the holistic g=l and sustainable development of communities in informal settlements was I- drawn up by Mr Philip Harrison. This proposal provided a platform for z

II

attracting funding.

The HSRC provided the first funding contribution towards the project, and thereafter funding was received from the KwaZulu Finance Corporation, Durban City Council, Natal Town and Regional Planning Commission and the Independent Health Systems Trust. The Department of Land and Regional Affairs, through the efforts of Mr Chris Proctor of the Regional Development Advisory Committee for Region E, doubled the income available for doing the project.

An elected Steering Committee commissioned Professor Jeff McCarthy, director of the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Durban-Westville, to prepare briefs for local researchers and to produce a synthesis of the 24 papers produced by some 35 researchers. Members of the Steering Committee were:

I PREFACE

= African National Congress: Dr Michael Sutcliffe

= Centre for Social and Development Studies: Professor Simon Bekker

IEF Department of Regional and Land Affairs: Mr Harvard

= Human Sciences Research Council: Mr Jon Taylor

Independent Development Trust: Mr Vish Suparsad

= Inkatha Institute: Dr Gavin Woods

KwaZulu Department of Economic Affairs: Mr Alf Mkhwanazi (Mr Robert Matsinyane, Ms Wendy Forse).

Regional Development Advisory Committee: Mr Chris Proctor

" South African National Civics Organisation: Mr Praveen Gordhan (Ms Yasmine Cmvadia, Mr Musa Xaba)

US Urban Foundation: Ms Liz Hicks

Thanks are expressed to all participants in the process. It is hoped that the research will be made widely available to inform policy makers, planners, decision makers and others grappling with complex issues relating to how to make sound decisions about the future development of millions of people in informal settlements.

Jon Taylor Chair man Standing Committee on Informal Settlement Development in KwaZulu-Natal

INTRODUCTION

Shantytowns are everywhere in KwaZulu-Natal, and they are here to stay. This book assembles and analyses information on informal settlements, and suggests policies for their development.

The book is divided into two parts. Part One defines and gauges the scale of the shantytown challenge and addresses the policy question. These two chapters are an overview and analysis of 24 papers commissioned for the project on Informal Settlement Development in KwaZulu-Natal.

Part Two focuses in greater detail on different aspects of informal settlement. It contains extracts from a selection of the 24 papers, organised into chapters under a number of themes.

The first theme looks at shantytowns from international, local and environmental perspectives. The second investigates why settlements have arisen, migration patterns and what prompts people to move into shacks.

The third theme reveals who settlement dwellers are - their socio-economic characteristics - and the services they need. The book then moves on to look a t issues of shantytown development: power relations, administration, tenure, organisational capacity and project management.

This is a rather unusual way of compiling a book. But i t was believed important to make widely available in 'popular' form the extraordinary information and analysis compiled by the authors of the reports.

It is important to stress that the papers were selected to provide insight into various facets of informal settlement. Some excellent reports were excluded because of restricted space and some subject overlap.

The reports are listed after the contents page. Anyone wanting greater insight into the phenomenon of shantytowns can purchase the reports from the Human Sciences Research Council in Durban or from the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Durban-Westville.

PREFACE

Karen Mac Gregor Editor; Indicator Press

INTRODUCTION

TABLEOFCONTENTS

PREFACE

Jon Taylor CHAPTER 8 CONFLICT AND MIGRATION IN KWAZULU-NATAL

Simon Bekker and Antoinette Louw

INTRODUCTION

Karen Mac Gregor CHAPTER 9 SOCIO-ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS

iii

Nick Wilkins and Julian Howe yr 107 REPORTS

CHAPTER 10 SETTLEMENT TYPES AND RECONSTRUCTION

PART ONE Julian Kiepiel 123

CHAPTER 11 ELECTRICITY AND WATER PROVISION CHAPTER 1 DEFINING AND GAUGING THE PROBLEM

Doug Hindson and Jeff McCarthy Julian May, Carey Ann May, Tris Newton, Ranveer Persad and Aki Stavrou

CHAPTER 2 POLICY APPROACHES

Doug Hindson and Jeff McCarthy CHAPTER 12 HEALTH AND RECREATION

Linda Grant and Cathy Meiklejohn

CHAPTER 13 POWER RELATIONS IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS

Mike Morris and Doug Hindson PART TWO

CHAPTER 14 ADMINISTRATION OF URBAN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS

CHAPTER 3 INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS

Udesh Pillay Mark Byerley and Alastair Mclntosh

CHAPTER 15 SHACK TENURE IN DURBAN

Catherine Cross CHAPTER 4 THE CASE OF CAT0 MANOR

Maurice Makhathini

CHAPTER 16 CAPACITY MISMATCH IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS

Musa Xaba and Yasmine Coovadia 191 CHAPTER 5 LEADERS IN LINDELANE

Thokozani Xaba

CHAPTER 17 HOUSING PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND IN-SITU UPGRADING

Rob Taylor

CHAPTER 6 RETHINKING THE ENVIRONMENT IN URBAN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS

Tim Quinlan and Jeff McCarthy

CHAPTER 7 MIGRATION INTO DFR INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS: AN OVERVIEW OF TRENDS APPENDIX SETTLEMENT INDEX

Rob Evans Catherine Cross, Simon Bekker and Craig Clark 83

CONTENTS CONTENTS

SOURCES

This book is based on the following 24 commissioned reports submitted to the Informal Settlement Project. In addition to these, a number of other references were drawn upon. They are set out at the end of each chapter.

Administration of Urban Informal Settlements in KwaZulu-Natal Mark Byerle y and Alistair McIntos h

The Relationship Between Conflict and Migration in the Informal Settlements of KwaZulu-Natal

Simon Bekker and Antoinette Louw

Capacity Building in the Civic Movement in the Informal Settlements of the Durban Functional Region

Craig Clark and Simon Bekker

Shack Tenure in the Durban Area Catherine Cross

Migration into the Informal Settlements of the Durban Functional Region: An Analysis of Trends

Catherine Cross, Simon Bekker and Craig Clark

Health and Recreational Facilities in Informal Settlements in KwaZulu-Natal

Linda Grant and Cathy Meiklejo hn

Informal Settlement Upgrading Development Capacity Liz Hicks

Violence in KwaZulu-Natal: Dynamics, Causes and Trends Doug Hindson and Mike Morris

Updated Population Data for Informal Settlements in the DFR Dave Jeflries and Julian May

A Typology of Informal Settlements in Natal Julian Kiepiel

REPORTS

Informal Settlements in KwaZulu-Natal: Quantification of the Typology with Implications for Reconstruction

Julian Kiepiel

Squatting as a Process: The Case of Cato Manor Maurice Makhathini

Situational Analysis on the Provision of Electricity and Water to Informal Settlements in Natal and KwaZulu

Julian May, Cary Ann May, Tris Newton, Ranueer Persad and Aki Staurou

Informal Settlements in the DFR (Map and Tables) Julian May

The Development Activities of African Independent Churches Pippin 00s thuizen and Craig Clark

International Perspectives on Informal Settlement: Some Lessons for South Africa

Udesh Pillay

Rethinking Environment and Local Governance in the Informal Settlements of the Durban Functional Region: A Pilot Study Towards Elaboration of Policy

Tim Quinlan and Jefl McCarthy

Global Assessment of the Nature, Extent and Character of Informal Settlements in the Greater Pietermaritzburg Area

Cecil Seethal

Housing Project Management and Technical Aspects of In-Situ Upgrading in KwaZulu-Natal

Rob Taylor

Trends in the Provision of Housing Finance and their Impact on Informal Settlements in KwaZulu-Natal

Conrad van Gass

Socio-Economic Aspects of the Upgrading of Informal Settlements in KwaZulu-Natal by Means of a Public Works Programme

Nick Wilkins and Julian Hofme y r

Informal Settlements within KwaZulu and Natal Gavin Woods, Fin Christensen, Msizi Dladla, Alfied Gumede and Walter Nzuza

REPORTS

Capacity Mismatch: Capacity Building as it Relates to the Development of Informal Settlements in KwaZulu-Natal

Musa Xaba and Yasmine Coovadia CHAPTER ONE

Authority and Development: Leadership, Development and Democracy in African Urban Areas

Thokozani Xaba

DEFINING MAPS AND GAUGING Several maps were produced for the study and are contained in the reports mentioned above. The three listed below were incorporated in the book.

Map 1. KwaZulu-Natal Informal Settlements Helena Margeot, Department of Geography, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg .

Map 2. Informal Settlements in the Durban Functional Region Helena Margeot, Department of Geography , University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg .

Map 3. Migration Patterns in KwaZulu-Natal Julian Kiepiel

THE PROBLEM

B y Doug Hindson a n d Jeff McCarthy

In this book informal settlements are defined as dense settlements comprising communities housed in self constructed shelters under conditions of informal or traditional land tenure. The term covers a range of different kinds of settlement in terms of shelter type, forms of informal tenure, degrees of official recognition and location in the rural-urban spectrum.

The statistical sources on informal settlements are notoriously problematic. Despite the fact that a national population census was held in 1991, accurate, detailed and adequately categorised data on the populations of informal settlements is not yet available.

The weaknesses in the data derive from several sources, including the racial and spatial categories used by the Central Statistical Services and problems relating to enumeration. In what follows, informal settlements are defined in terms of housing type and density. In rural areas the lines are blurred between dense and dispersed settlements, and it is probable that a larger part of the population lives in dense or densifylng informal housing than is reflected in the data below.

The following tables are drawn from the paper by Wilkins and Hofmeyer, based on original work undertaken by May and the Urban Foundation in 1993. They provide the best available current data, but as will be

REPORTS CHAPTER 1 i

seen from a comparison of Table 1 and Table 2, which are based on different sources, there is considerable variation in estimates of the size of the population of KwaZulu-Natal.

O Size and Growth

Table 1. Population of KwaZulu-Natal, 1985, 1990, 1995 (000s) (Average annual increase in brackets)

Rural Urban Informal Total

( Source: Wilkins and Hofmeyer, 1994. I Table 1 provides a broad brush picture of informal settlement in KwaZulu-Natal against the background of urban and rural population growth. Unfortunately the information source does not allow for the disaggregation of settlement populations into rural and urban areas.

The main features revealed are that the population of all areas is growing, but the rate of growth of urban areas is about three times that of rural areas. The growth of informal settlements far outstrips that of the formal areas. Informal areas make up just over a third of the total urban population and over half of the Miican urban population. Not shown by the table is the fact that population is either static or in decline within historically white commercial rural areas.

Table 2, based on the work of the Urban Foundation, gives a more detailed breakdown of information for 1992. According to this source, informal settlements contained 26% of the total population of the region. This is a substantially higher proportion of the total than yielded by data in Table 1. However, this may still remain an underestimate if the phenomenon of incremental rural densification described above is considered.

Of the total population in informal settlements, by far the largest number were living within the metropolitan areas of the Durban Functional Region

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Table 2. Population of KwaZulu/Natal, 1992 (Distribution between area types)

I Population (000) % total I 1 Metropolitan (DFR & GPA) 2290 24.7 1 I Towns 350 3.8 1

Total Urban Formal Settlements 2640 28.5

Informal Metro 1 550 16.7 1 1 Informal Towns 470 5.1 1 1 Transitional (rural to urban) 400 4.3 1

Total Urban Informal 2420 26.1

I Total Urban 5060 54.6 1 . - - - - - -

Total Rural 421 0 45.4

Grand Total 9270 100.0

Source: Wilkins and Hofmeyer, 1994.

(DFR) and Greater Pietermaritzburg Area (GPA). However, Table 2 also reveals that a significant number of informal settlements exist in or near medium and small towns and in rural areas.

In the medium and smaller towns informal settlements contain over half the total population, a substantially larger percentage than in the metropolitan areas. Conditions of employment and residence of small town settlements may need special attention because of the proportionately greater pressure on the infrastructure and services of the towns compared to metropolitan areas.

Not a great deal is known about informal settlements in rural areas, but the Urban Foundation has distinguished a category of 'dense rural settlements' in transition from rural to urban areas and estimated that about 17% of people living in informal settlements are located in these kinds of areas. It is, however, by no means clear where a rural area ends and a dense rural settlement begins.

It is well known that rural settlements are increasingly functionally linked to the cities through migration, survival networks, employment, wage incomes and transfers. In terms of the density of settlement, there is a shading off of urban into rural areas rather than a clear distinction between the two.

1 CHAPTER 1

I T r a n s v_.a a 1 S W A Z I L A N D I-

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Department of Development A Aid Areas (DDA)

Planning Region Boundary

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Kilometres Cartograph~c Un~t, Un~vers~ty of Natal, P~etermar~tzburg

In places such as Umgababa, for example, an incremental process of densification is taking place along the southern highway which makes it difficult to decide where the rural area ends and the urban area begins. Inclusion of settlements of this type would greatly increase estimates of informal settlement.

O Spatial Distribution

The mapping exercise undertaken for the project produced invaluable information on the spatial distribution of informal settlements, enabling analysis of links between employment opportunities and residential locations. Map 1, prepared by Helena Margeot, presents the available data for the whole of KwaZulu-Natal, based on the records of the Natal Provincial Administration.

Researchers and policy makers have been aware for some time that most informal settlement has occurred in the DFR and GPA. The map shows that a similar trend is occurring in or near smaller towns along the major transport routes. This is a highly significant trend as it indicates that the pattern of settlement follows closely the distribution of employment and service opportunities in the province.

These are distributed along two main corridors which run north and south of the DFR along the coast, and west and north west along the major transport corridor linking the DFR via the GPA and northern mining towns to the PWV. The other settlements follow secondary corridors comprising connector road and rail networks.

A feature of this development is that most informal settlement in KwaZulu-Natal, outside the DFR and GPA, has occurred on private or state owned land rather than tribal land. The reason for this is that outside the metropolitan fringes, land in the main activity corridors is either owned by the state or by private individuals and companies.

Our second major mapping exercise is of informal settlements in the DFR. Map 2, also prepared by Helena Margeot, presents the best available information, based on the records of Data Research Africa.

The pattern of informal settlement in the DFR and the GPA is fairly well known. Most settlement has occurred on the metropolitan peripheries, either on tribal land, on private land owned by Africans and Indians, or on state administered land set aside for black township development.

CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 1

However, our mapping exercise revealed two further trends. The first is the movement of informal settlers into the core city area since the late 1980s and the formation of settlements on vacant state land near to historically white, Indian and coloured residential areas. The second is the increasing densification of the DFR's far peripheries, although this trend has yet to be fully verified and quantified.

The scale of core city informal settlement is still relatively small, with only about 20 000 people recorded in core city settlements in early 1994. But the pace of settlement appears to be increasing rapidly. This is evident from the personal observation of fieldworkers from the Institute for Social and Economic Research, who have worked in these areas since the late 1980s.

O Functional Interconnections

For analytical and policy concerns it is important to keep in mind Kiepiel's admonition that informal settlements are not isolated concentrations of population with a discrete set of social and economic characteristics which can be treated as a unique focus of reconstruction policy. Rather they should be considered as components of the entire settlement pattern in which they play an important part.

Furthermore, the functional roles of settlements change with time. Informal settlements, like formal settlements, satisfy certain needs to various degrees and as perceptions of settlement performance change, settlements may change in function or decline.

Examples are core city settlements such as Cato Crest, which began as locations for incremental settlements in the late 1980s and are now, in addition to providing shelter for settlers, partially performing the function of bridgehead settlements for invasions into other parts of Cato Manor.

Cato Crest is linked to settlements on the urban peripheries such as Lindelani and Bhambayi, and also to core city areas such as Canaan, the populations of which have been mobilised in the past to intervene in power struggles within the area and at times of planned land invasions.

O Summary Findings

The key findings of this section are that informal settlement constitutes probably the fastest growing component of the population of KwaZulu-Natal.

CHAPTER 1

Most of this settlement is occurring in the metropolitan areas, but there is also rapid growth of informal settlements in medium and smaller towns and in the rural areas, where a process of densification appears to be taking place in areas which are transforming from rural into urban.

Within the metropolitan areas the process of settlement occurred first on the residential peripheries, but in recent years there has been a significant movement of informal settlers into core city areas. There are also signs that a process of densification of the outer peripheries of metropolitan areas is continuing to occur.

THE DYNAMICS OF MOVEMENT AND SETTLEMENT

Understanding of the dynamics of settlement is critical if we are to address present need and future growth of informal areas within a coherent overall urban and rural strategy. The process of movement and settlement has taken place in a number of overlapping stages.

O Late 1970s

Illegal squatting was never entirely eradicated under apartheid, but after being reduced to small hidden pockets in the 1960s it began to grow again in the 1970s, mainly in the form of clandestine illegal settlement near townships. Most settlement took the form of densification of privately owned Indian and African land, and also tribal areas abutting townships

-

on the urban peripheries.

O Mid to late 1980s

During the 1980s a number of factors combined to enable the mushrooming of informal settlements in metropolitan areas of KwaZulu-Natal. These included popular mobilisation against, and consequent weakening of, black local authorities, and the weakening of the power of tribal authorities and private Indian and African landowners, which resulted from the growth of new and assertive organisations among squatters and tenants.

To these factors were added the abolition of influx control and promotion of residential deconcentration under the policy of orderly urbanisation advocated by the 1985 President's Council Report. New spaces for

settlement opened up to aspirant informal settlers from the overcrowded townships and to migrants fleeing drought, and the grinding poverty and social constraints of rural society.

Along with scale of settlement, the pattern of settlement changed in important ways. One change was the growing openness of informal settlement as administrative controls declined and communities reached a threshold of size. Most settlement was incremental, although some took the form of organised invasions entailing large numbers of settlers moving into a n area and occupying it in a short space of time.

Although most settlement was still confined to metropolitan peripheries, increasing numbers occupied vacant land within townships and pressure for core city settlement began to take place, especially in the late 1980s.

A major feature of the pattern of movement and settlement in the 1980s was the role of internecine violence within and between informal settlements, and between them and neighbouring formal townships. The violence resulted in massive movements of the urban population, much of it between different locations within the periphery, and some into the core city areas. In some areas violence led to a reverse flow of population from the metropolitan fringe to semi-rural areas, and this may partially explain the densification of the far peripheries in the 1990s.

Research undertaken on intra-urban movement has yielded some deep insights into this aspect of movement, but we remain relatively ignorant of urban-rural linkages and how they have changed during the 1980s.

Studies by Hindson and Byerley of a number of communities on the peripheries indicate that about one third of the population of informal settlements there comprise people who have moved directly from a rural area, while the remainder have moved from a township or another informal settlement. In the core city settlements the component of people moving directly from rural areas is much smaller, indicating that people with urban experience are the best placed and most likely to take up strategic locations within the core area.

Much of the movement in the 1980s is associated with extreme insecurity resulting not only from violence but also from lack of tenure rights of informal settlement residents. A dominant pattern, according to Cross, is for people to keep moving on, either to escape violence or the threat of violence or to find a more advantageous or secure foothold in a preferential location within the metropolitan area.

CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 1

The weakening of authority structures, first on the periphery and later in core city areas, has allowed a process of decompression - splitting up - of households as spaces for informal settlement have opened up or been taken by force.

Finally, an important feature of the rapid social transformation on residential peripheries, observed by Hindson and Byerley in 1992, is the emergence of new social strata as the poorer sections of township populations move into squatter areas to be joined by rural migrants, and as the wealthier sections of township populations move into the new lower middle income housing estates that sprang up near townships in the 1980s.

While much of the movement and dislocation of people in metropolitan areas in the 1980s was driven by malignant forces such as violence and crime, some movement was impelled by the search for better housing and employment opportunities by better off sections of township populations. This resulted from household and class decompression and the sifting of income groups into more socially homogeneous residential areas on the peripheries and towards the core city areas.

O Late 1980s and Early 1990s

There have been important changes in trends within squatter settlements during the years since the unbanning of political organisations and opening up of democratic activity. Open political activity in the 1980s was associated with a massive upsurge of violence in squatter areas, and between them and neighbouring townships, and this led to further displacement of people, with squatter settlements the hardest hit. A further feature of the period was the growth of intra-communal conflict as struggles for control intensified between competing groups within settlements.

The second major development in the 1980s was the movement of people from the peripheries to the core city areas, as mentioned. The pressure for such movement had always existed, given the potential work and service opportunities associated with core city locations, but the maintenance of strict controls by white, Indian and coloured local authorities had prevented people from moving.

The trickle of core city squatting in the late 1980s turned into a substantial stream during the early 1990s. This was impelled by growing violence and instability on the peripheries and the increasing reluctance of

CHAPTER 1

municipal authorities to act against illegal settlement during a rapidly changing national political context and constitution negotiations.

The publicity given to core city squatting in the 1990s and the great fears it has generated in middle income suburban groups is far out of proportion to the scale of the phenomenon. In early 1994, according to Data Research Africa, there were approximately 2 1 000 informal settlers in the central DFR area - mainly in the area under the Durban Municipality - or less than 1% of informal settlers in the DFR as a whole.

The other major stream from the peripheries to the core was the movement of the new black middle income groups into historically white inner city and suburban areas. This process, observed by Hindson and Byerley, began in the late 1980s and speeded up after the dropping of the Group Areas Act in 1992. It is set to increase significantly in the next few years with the entrance of growing numbers of black people into positions in the civil service and the private sector as affirmative action programmes become more widespread.

Finally, as mentioned, it appears there may also have been a counter Zi W

trend towards increased settlement on the far peripheries, especially in 4

tribal areas. The densification of these areas in recent times may be the LP A

outcome both of movement from more remote rural areas towards the u metropolitan peripheries and from crowded peripheries to escape violence

a a

and gain access to greater space. W

The processes of movement and settlement that occurred in the 1990s I

appear to represent a continuation at accelerated pace of processes begun in the 1980s. Two important aspects that need further research and quantification are household and class decompression.

The opening up of spaces within the city core and the occupation of increased land areas on the peripheries in the 1990s appear to have been accompanied by a process of household splitting and reformation as new and smaller units form in new locations.

Associated with this process is class decompression: the sifting out of income groups previously compressed into households and locations in townships and squatter areas on the peripheries due to the lack of residential opportunities in other areas.

Household and class decompression in townships resulted, in the late 1980s, in the emergence of new and more class differentiated residential

CHAPTER 1

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CHAPTER 1

areas on the peripheries, squatter settlements on the one hand and new lower middle income suburbs on the other. During the 1990s household and class decompression have been given further impulse by the opening up of the core city areas to settlement by new black middle income groups and informal settlers.

O Migration and Commuting

The break-up of apartheid's urban regulatory system unleashed major changes in patterns of intra-urban movement and settlement, but this did not entirely replace earlier forms and patterns of movement. Work undertaken by Julian Kiepiel for the KwaZulu-Natal region reveals that both commuting and long distance migration remain important for informal settlement residents in non-metropolitan areas of the region.

Map 3 illustrates the findings of a survey of informal settlement households, conducted by the Natal Provincial Authorities in 1992. The focus of the survey was on migration, commuting and employment patterns in non-metropolitan areas of the then Natal and KwaZulu areas.

Kiepiel distinguishes between out-migration, oscillating migration and commuting. Of the three forms it appears that out-migration is the least well understood, but Kiepiel argues that processes of out-migration that lead to settlement decline may well be more pervasive than previously understood. He cites a number of cases of smaller settlements - 1 000 people and less - which have spontaneously dismantled and disappeared.

Kiepiel's findings indicate that oscillating - long distance temporary -

migration continues to occur both within KwaZulu-Natal and between the region and the former Transvaal and Orange Free State. Much, if not most, of this is associated with mine labour. Two major source areas appear to be the far northern and southern midlands sub-regions.

Commuting appears to remain a major phenomenon for communities within 50 kilometres of significant sources of employment. Commuting patterns are complex and connect rural communities with larger and smaller centres of employment. For example, strong patterns exist between areas along the south coast and midlands corridors and the DFR, and between communities and towns in the north coast corridor. A feature of these commuting patterns is the complicated web they create between communities and employment centres, suggesting that existing transport networks create a range of opportunities on a sub-regional basis for

communities in reasonable proximity to the major routes. This enables households and communities to draw from a wide spread of employment opportunities, rather than the more conventional pattern of a community depending on a single employment centre.

The reasons for these patterns of migration continuing are not explored by Kiepiel, but may well be to do with continuing lack of access to well located and affordable sites near the main centres of employment for a large number of households, as well as the advantages of rural areas for household survival strategies.

It is probable that a complex set of factors determine the choice of location. For low income rural households survival often appears to depend on the ability to combine access to cheap land and shelter, access to services such as schools and clinics and the possibility of commuting or migrating to places of wage employment.

In addition to these material considerations, factors such as the levels of personal security in an area, political allegiances and the existence of personal networks with established families may play a part in determining choices of location, as suggested by Kok and Gelderblom.

0 Summary Findings

A number of issues of importance to urban policy arise out of our examination of the dynamics of movement and settlement. The first is that the data does not support the idea that urbanisation takes place through a simple process of movement from countryside to city by nuclear families which then establish themselves permanently in town. The break up of apartheid and ensuing violence of the 1980s and 1990s has given rise to a complex process of movement between rural and urban areas and within urban areas.

One of the principal dynamics of this process appears to be the search for improved locations as opportunities have opened up for settlement in locations previously denied the poor by apartheid controls and the system of private property. In addition, the social turmoil of the black residential areas in the 1980s and 1990s has greatly increased instability and induced large scale refugee movements in some areas.

A second process is that of social sifting and accompanying intra-urban movement leading to the formation of new residential communities with

CHAPTER 1 Ad

distinct social and economic characteristics. A third feature is the development of household networks across space as families seek to secure survival by combining a range of opportunities offered by different locales.

The emerging dynamics of movement and settlement, the processes of residential differentiation and social network formation across space, call for a more flexible and variegated approach to housing and development programmes in urban areas than is common in policy debates about these issues.

Housing policy must cater for a range of income groups and needs including permanent settlement for some groups, commuting opportunities for others and a significant continuing component of longer distance migrants.

It should also be based on a more complex understanding of the meaning of access to opportunities, including not only income earning opportunities, but also access to affordable land, services and transport routes which put a range of resources in reach of family members.

SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS

A common misconception that needs to be corrected is that informal settlements are uniformly harsh environments containing generally impoverished, relatively socially homogeneous communities. Our findings suggest a far more complex and diverse picture.

The two outstanding features are of great variation in socio-economic characteristics both within and between different informal settlements. In general the variation within informal settlements tends to be greater than the between settlements.

O Income Variation Within Settlements

To illustrate the variation within informal settlements we take May's categorisation of income groups in a peri-urban informal settlement in KwaZulu, reproduced in the report by Wilkins and Hofmeyer. This example is based on a sample survey of 676 households in peri-urban areas in the DFR, but the results exempliQ the diversity of income groups to be found in different measure in all informal settlements.

Peri-urban Informal Settlements in KwaZulu, 1992 (Average Monthly Household Income)

Source: Wilkins a n d Hofmeyer, 1994.

The groups identified are largely self explanatory. The marginalised represent households that are either destitute or nearly destitute. The welfare dependent households are those that depend mainly on welfare payments. Remittance dependent households derive most of their income from migrant remittances. The waged and mixed income categories are households that derive most of their income from wages and other income earning activities in urban or rural areas.

Among the striking features of this settlement profile is the range of average household incomes. Peri-urban informal settlements have a significant component of households that earn well above the average for settlements, mainly in the form of wages but also from other secondary or primary activities, whether urban or rural based. The most fragile sections of the settlements are destitute households and those dependent either on welfare such as pension payments or on remittances from household members based elsewhere.

Table 4 illustrates variation between settlements in terms of average household income. The table is based on a number of surveys covering just under 6 000 households undertaken in rural and urban areas of KwaZulu. The data is categorised in terms of housing type, spatial location and density to derive the following categories: metro formal, urban formal (small towns), peri-urban informal, rural dense and rural dispersed.

Variation Between Informal Settlements in KwaZulu, 1992 (Average monthly household income amongst African households)

Formal African townships in towns and metropolitan areas of KwaZulu-Natal have the highest average household income, followed by informal settlements, dispersed rural areas and dense rural settlements. Thus informal settlements in the urban peripheries occupy an intermediate position between the relative affluence of the townships and the grinding poverty of rural settlements.

It is important to be aware that this categorisation does not reveal differences between settlements in the different kinds of areas distinguished. The distinction between dispersed and dense rural settlements is an important one and appears to coincide with long settled tribal rural areas and more recently settled areas created as a consequence of forced removals, most of which took place in the 1960s and 1970s.

Ci Other Sources of Variation

There are important variations between urban settlements not revealed by these figures. A number of studies of informal settlements in the DFR by Hindson and Byerley have shown considerable variation, with average household incomes ranging from R600 to R800. The variations appear to be linked to such factors as the age and degree of stability of an informal settlement, the impact of violence, and the relations between the community and authority structures that control the area.

One hypothesis not confirmed by available information is that proximity to the city core is positively correlated to income levels, at least for the

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1 j

year 1992. Contrary to expectations, core city settlements are poorer on I

average than the longer standing peripheral settlements. This may be I

due to the refugee status of many of their residents, and their lack of I

organisational consolidation and recognition by municipal authorities. I

It is highly probable that this situation will change in the next few years since these settlements occupy strategic positions in terms of potential access to the range of opportunities offered by core city areas.

O Income Variation and Settlement Dynamics I

i It is important, in assessing the significance of these findings, to take into account the dynamics of movement, settlement and household and class decompressiori at work in urban areas. The heterogeneous character of informal settlements is certainly partly a result of the forced social and household compression brought about by influx control and housing shortages during the apartheid years.

The processes of decompression that have occurred thus far have been influenced by growing opportunities for informal settlement on vacant land under degrees of insecurity of tenure. Further processes of decompression and hence movement and settlement will depend heavily not only on land settlement policy but also, and critically, on housing policy and the housing and development delivery process as it unfolds in town and countryside.

Other sources of information suggest that there is considerable variation among informal settlements within metropolitan areas. For example, as mentioned, contrary to expectations core city settlements are poorer than longer standing peripheral settlements, despite their favourable locations in relation to employment opportunities.

These areas are relatively new and populated in large measure by refugees from the internecine violence of the 1980s and early 1990s. A large proportion of their inhabitants are women who do not have preferential I

I access to the core city labour markets. Furthermore, regional and municipal authorities responsible for the areas in which these people have settled have generally fostered a climate of uncertainty about their future which is not conducive to community cohesion and stabilisation.

The variation in household incomes within and between settlements in metropolitan areas and between urban and rural settlements is connected

to the continuing legacies of apartheid policies operating in conjunction with forces unleashed by the breakdown of apartheid controls and increased freedom of movement and settlement.

The legacies of apartheid include not only the forced removals of the more distant past which have created chronically impoverished and depressed communities in rural areas, but also the application of the Group Areas Act until 1992 as well as attempts under the policy of orderly urbanisation to confine blacks to the urban peripheries.

With the opening up of land to all race groups - albeit subject to the preservation of rights attached to private property - and the provision of mass housing, new dynamics of settlement are likely to be set in motion which will impact on the income and class composition of informal settlements and formal townships on the peripheries. The precise way in which this happens will depend not only on housing and development policies adopted but also on the spontaneous responses of individuals, households and communities to those policies.

It is highly probable that a massive housing programme coupled with z

growing employment opportunities in urban areas will fairly rapidly drain informal settlements of their higher income households. This could lead m to their replacement by households migrating from less advantageous 0 settlements, possibly in a step wise fashion from rural to peri-urban Pe areas. This is suggested by Hindson and Byerley's study of households

n in the Albert Park area of Durban. w

3[3

O Gender Variation

The broad finding that emerges from a number of the reports submitted to the project on informal settlements is that women tend to fare worst on a range of socio-economic criteria associated with variation within and between informal settlements.

On average, women outnumber men in informal settlements and the number of female headed households is very high: about a third of all households in both informal and formal black residential areas. However, there is considerable variation in the proportion of women and female headed households between different settlements.

In Table 3 the percentage of female headed households in each of the income categories is given. Although this percentage is low in the case

'

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of marginalised households, which make up 4% of the sample, it is very high in welfare and remittance dependent households, indicating both the dependence and vulnerability of women.

These raw statistical indices provide only crude pointers to the serious disadvantages of most women living in informal settlements. Qualitative material submitted to the project by a number of writers - among them Hicks, Xaba and Coovadia - reveal some of the consequences of the triple burden of class, race and gender on women in informal settlements.

These include, for example, the dependence of women on men for the allocation of sites, discrimination against single women parents in site allocation, and the antagonism of often male dominated political organisations against emerging women leadership in some settlements.

O Infrastructure and Services

As with other indicators, informal settlements in peri-urban areas occupy an intermediate position between formal areas and rural areas, with dense rural settlements by far the worst off in terms of services for health, water, electricity, transport, sanitation and communications. The scale of need is illustrated by the indicators set out below.

1 Table 5 1 Basic Services in Informal Settlements in KwaZulu-Natal

(Excluding Metropolitan Areas) 1994

Population I WATER

I HEALTH 1 Mainly mobile clinics 251 270 83,7 No supply 49 047 16,3

I EDUCATION I

I Source: lnkatha Institute. 1994. 1

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This table provides a rough measure of service availability since the extent of accessibility, even where a service is recorded as being available, is by no means clear and accessibility to some services, such as education, may not be as location bound as others such as water supply or electricity. Nevertheless the picture painted is bleak indeed, with only a small fraction of the population having access to tap water, over half having no access to electricity, most relying on mobile clinics for health services and a significant minority having no schooling available whatsoever.

Grant and Meikeljohn point out that the lack or poor quality of health and recreational services, for example, worsens as it moves away from major urban centres towards remote areas and smaller places, and that women in particular tend to have the least access to services.

Kiepiel has also provided an analysis of the distribution of services relative to settlement size and location. He draws a number of important conclusions about the supply of different utility services. In terms of line services such as electricity and water, there is an association between the level of provision and accessibility to employment centres. Settlements with higher levels of water provision generally show higher levels of accessibility t o major industrial complexes than the total sample of settlements. However, the worst degrees of deprivation occur in and around urban centres in towns.

An important finding was that there is no clear correspondence between line services and point s e ~ c e s such as schools and clinics. Settlements with high levels of line service may have low levels of point service supply, or vice versa.

There also appears to be considerable unevenness throughout the province regarding the relationship between point services and settlement size. Thus many settlements with high service thresholds for a particular service, such as a fixed clinic or a secondary school, do not have them while significant numbers of settlements with populations below service thresholds, do have them. Kiepiel suggests that this lopsided distribution of services results from the fragmentation of service departments and spatial-political fragmentation of the past.

0 Housing Types, Infrastructure and Environment

One task not successfully undertaken by the project was to gather information on housing types and the condition of housing in informal

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settlements. There is a common misconception that all informal settlements comprise no more than flimsy, unhealthy and dangerous shacks.

The reality is that there is a wide range of housing types and standards within settlements, and that different settlements differ in terms of structures erected, their durability and the internal and external environment they create, both for inhabitants and in terms of their impact on the wider natural environment. Furthermore, the standard of housing in informal settlements tends to improve with time, with increased collective and individual tenurial security.

O Summary Findings

Although intra-settl'ement variation accounts for much of the variation between individual settlements, the material on inter-settlement variation between urban formal, peri-urban informal, dispersed rural and dense rural settlements strongly suggests a positive relationship between the spatial location of settlements and income levels within settlements.

With the break up of controls over settlement and the implementation of a mass housing strategy it is likely that this relationship will strengthen, so that communities and households in well located positions relative to opportunities within the city core are likely to experience growing income levels relative to communities in more remote locations on the urban periphery and in rural areas.

That broad patterns of movement are being impelled by the drive for better access to opportunities concentrated in core urban areas and along the major transport corridors is strongly suggested by the pattern of growth and spatial location of settlements.

It may be posited for furtherb research that opportunities and access to them are distributed in a spatial hierarchy, with concentrations in metro areas and corridors linking towns. Movement is towards these concentrations of opportunities, and a future regional policy should build new opportunities within these concentrations and corridors.

The effect would not be to distribute development resources to the poor in their worst spatial locations but to distribute them to more viable, sustainable and accessible locations near to where they are presently located. In this way the dilemma between sustainability and addressing needs where they exist can begin to be overcome.

It should be borne in mind that the relationship between spatial location and indices of poverty and relative wealth is not straight forward. There are clearly communities in the remoter rural areas who are cut off from both urban and rural opportunities, and these communities would gain no direct benefit from an approach which concentrated on building on sustainable settlement trends.

Similarly within metropolitan areas there are extremely impoverished communities, most of whose residents are unable to take advantage of their relatively favourable location due to their lack of skills and resources.

Such trapped communities and their residents need special attention within an overall strategy of sustainable reconstruction and development to ensure that they are not bypassed by those more able to take advantage of the development process. On the other hand, for many there is an increase in options opened up by enhanced migration opportunities.

LEADERSHIP, ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT

The relationship between local leadership in informal settlements, local government and administration and the dynamics of development is complex. An understanding of this complex relationship and how it may be transformed will be decisive to the success of any future housing upgrade and development programme for informal settlements.

O Competing Power Centres

In the early 1980s the administrative system of urban areas was characterised not only by great complexity, illustrated in Table 6, but also by a growing confusion as to purpose and administrative function. This was a product of the fragmentation of administrative structures brought about by apartheid policy and growing uncertainties introduced into the system by reforms of the 1980s, which sought to liberalise within the basic spatial and administrative framework of apartheid.

The situation was further complicated by the dismantling of the Bantu Affairs Administration Boards from the mid 1980s, and abortive attempts to devolve such powers as housing allocation and influx control to a black local authority leadership deemed illegitimate by a large part of the urban black population.

CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 1

Table 6

Typology of Informal Settlements

Location Formal Admin Leadership

Outer periphery TA/NPA/KZ/FH TA-IFPIANC-CIVIC Townships BLAIN PA/KZ BLA-IFP/ANC-CIVIC Outer core WLA/MC/HOD/NPA IFP/ANC-CIVIC Inner core WLA/NPA/FH/HOD IFP/ANC-CIVIC Inner city WLA/FH ANC-CIVIC

Notes: TA -Tribal Authority; NPA - Natal Provincial Authority; KZ - KwaZulu Government; BLA - Black Local Authorities: WLA - White Local Authorities: MC - Management Committees: HOD - House of Delegates: FH - Freehold land

Source: Byerley and Mclntosh

I

I The essentials of the present situation in informal settlements derive I from the break up or serious weakening of pre-existing official authority

and administrative structures, and the emergence under widely varying conditions of localised centres of power. These centres of power are themselves often internally riven with conflict and in semi-dependent and often ambiguous relationships with official representatives of local, regional and national government and political organisations.

Competing localised centres of power, according to Hindson and Morris' contribution, emerged in the context of rapid urbanisation, the reform and partial collapse of apartheid policies and administrative structures, and intensified conflict and competition among national political organisations and the government around constitutional change and the appropriate path of reform and reconstruction.

Adding to this complexity is the enormous range of formal administrative and governmental systems operating in KwaZulu-Natal. Byerley and McIntosh developed a typology of settlements based on the mix of geographic location, formal administration and leadership. Table 6 reveals the number of permutations actually existing on the ground.

It is not possible to trace the full complexity of relations existing in various locales between formal administration and leadership. However, some of the major characteristics of changing relations between local government, administration and power centres is examined.

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0 Local Government, Administration and Power Centres

The disintegration of local government and administration in South African cities in the 1980s and 1990s was not even. One of the major reasons why informal settlements sprang up mainly on the far peripheries of metropolitan areas was to do with the relative strength of core city administrations and the weaknesses of some peripheral administrative structures such as black local authorities and tribal authorities.

Informal settlement was well established on African and Indian privately owned land well before the upsurge of conflict in the 1980s. The long standing neglect of areas of private land ownership by the authorities in places like Inanda, and the increasingly unclear succession in ownership, had already undermined private property in these areas.

However the rapid growth of numbers of people in settlements and the emergence of a shacklord class, and later of civic organisations, substantially shifted the balance of power from the land owner to the local tenant leadership. This undermined private rights to land. E

U11 Within tribal areas abutting the metropolitan core, local chiefs and I headmen often s u p e ~ s e d the process of site allocation. But their capacity m

I

to maintain control weakened once settlements grew beyond a manageable 0 I size and local leadership not accountable to the chiefs took power. Squatting

a on vacant land nearby townships mushroomed after the mid 1980s

n 1

following mobilisation against black local authorities and their growing w

I incapacity to regulate settlement. I:

i I--

In the core city areas, under white administrative control, the pace of settlement has been far slower and the capacity of squatter communities and their leadership to consolidate their position has been far more limited. This is due to the continuing power and cohesion of white local authorities and their reluctance to recognise informal settlements and their leaders. A critical issue here has been the preservation of individual or state rights in terms of land ownership and tenure.

The relative weakness of leadership within core city settlements vis-a-vis municipal authorities has meant that the capacity of these leaders to consolidate their bases through site allocation, the delivery of s e ~ c e s and provision of security for residents has been limited. In these circumstances, leaders became reliant on affiliations to regional and national political leadership and subject to the balance of forces at regional and national level.

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0 Internecine Conflict and Development

During the 1980s, political violence was often rooted in power struggles between leaders with clear territorial bases in residential communities in both squatter settlements and formal townships.

With the collapse of the local state, a struggle over scarce land and residential resources rapidly converted into internecine conflict between local power centres affiliated - albeit often tenuously - to competing black political organisations, notably Inkatha and the African National Congress. These conflicts, according to Hindson and Morris, occurred between and within informal settlements and in some notorious and highly destructive cases, between informal settlements and neighbouring formal townships.

Conflict between localities also often has inadvertent knock on effects. As pointed out by Bekker and Louw, conflict gives rise to politically based patterns of migration, and the in-migration of refugees into an area may be perceived as a threat which in turn generates new conflicts. However, complex patterns of both rural-urban and intra-urban migration characterise informal settlements.

O Prospects in the 1998s

Development initiatives in most settlements and their neighbouring areas almost ground to a halt in the unstable conditions of the late 1980s

, and early 1990s, due either to the unresolved nature of internal politics in settlements or to attacks launched by neighbouring communities, designed to ensure the failure of their competitors.

With the formation of the Government of National Unity and the drive towards reconstruction and development it becomes essential to stabilise these communities and bring their leaders under the authority of new local and regional administrations. This is not going to be easy given the history of political affiliations and the distribution of support bases within urban and rural areas and between formal and informal settlements.

One of the difficult questions a new regional authority will face is how to relate to local power structures: whether to work with them or to supplant them with new administrative structures. It was argued by Xaba that authoritarian leadership in one area of the DFR has been successful in delivering development due to the suppression of opposition and capacity to act swiftly and without recourse to democratic processes.

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This case has been juxtaposed with that in a neighbouring township, where an uneasy balance of power exists between a largely discredited black local authority and a civic organisation with dubious support. No development has occurred and even the provision of services has stopped due to the unwillingness of either side in the conflict to join together to address the development needs of the community.

! It is clear that this kind of impasse will have to be tackled by new local authorities. The establishment of legitimate local authorities will not

1 proceed easily in many squatter settlements and formal areas on the I urban peripheries, and this suggests that the social compact approach I to development may well have a larger role to play in the Reconstruction

i and Development Programme in KwaZulu-Natal than in other provinces.

( Certainly there will be a continuing need to mediate the development I

I process, not only in violence torn communities on the urban peripheries

1 but also in core city areas. Here there is likely to be growing conflict h between established white, coloured and Indian residents and new

i residents from the peripheries, especially in new housing developments

I where issues such as housing density, infrastructure and servicing h standards are likely to become the focus of contention.

In this regard Makhathini's Cato Manor case study is helpful in understanding the complexities of inner city squatter issues. Particularly useful is his model of squatter leadership change. Makhathini argues that in the initial phases of establishing new settlements there are different types of leaders: authoritarian and violent figures rather than the more educated and negotiation oriented individuals who come to the fore during phases of upgrading and negotiations with authorities.

O Redefining Local Government and Leadership Roles

If development is to succeed the balance of power must be shifted away from local leadership and towards the ultimate beneficiaries in communities, on the one hand, and new local authorities on the other hand. The point is that the development process should be increasingly distanced from power play and patronage within areas and should directly address the needs of ordinary residents.

Special efforts need to be made to ensure that women are given opportunities to gain access to the processes and products of development in a manner that addresses their particular needs. This implies a shift

CHAPTER 1

in power from male led political organisations to gender balanced development organisations and structures in which women come to play a major role. This refers equally to civic and warlord led communities.

O Securing Tenure Rights of ~eneficiaries

In order to. achieve a shift from leadership control in existing power structures to a direct relationship between new local authorities and residents of areas it is necessary to secure the tenure of households in their place of residence.

Residents become vulnerable to arbitrary power - whether that of an authoritarian local administration, warlords or unaccountable civic leadership - when their residential security, income earning opportunities or access to services depend on political allegiance to local leaders.

A key issue will be to disentangle all these facets of development from local politics and ensure that non-party political criteria are adopted in the allocation of benefits, and that organisations not subject to local, national or regional politicians take root around the various facets of community development.

O Summary Findings

The break up of inherited administrative structures in black residential areas of South African cities and the emergence of new power structures and informal leadership has created both opportunities and obstacles for future housing and development.

In many areas of KwaZulu-Natal, development has ground to a standstill due to violence or the threat of violence, and in other areas new local leaders often place obstacles in the way of development in an effort to exercise control over the process for narrow sectional reasons.

The challenge at present is to recast power relations within these communities, and more widely within urban areas, through the creation of rationalised, integrated and democratic local authorities which are accountable to residents. The reconstitution of local government in this way should entail a shift in power from local power elites towards new governmental structures, and a shift from local political. organisations towards individual residents who are the beneficiaries of development.

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